While authorities have cordoned off the Piparo Mud Volcano following an increase in activity, one family may have to evacuate as earth movement has started to damage their home.
Large fissures from the volcano continued to widen from Saturday night into yesterday, with fresh mounds of mud piling up near the mouth.
As scores of curious visitors and residents gathered, the machinated sound could be heard and gas was released every few minutes.
Police officers were doing patrols, in case there was a need to initiate an emergency exercise.
For Fedell Solomon, whose home is situated close to the volcano, the memories of the 1997 eruption that almost flattened their community rushed to mind.
Solomon was only nine years old back then, but when the equipment room began separating from the rest of his family home, they immediately began packing up important documents and clothes and putting it in their vehicle in case they needed to evacuate.
“We were getting ready for bed and just heard something like a hard gunshot. We thought it was someone trying to come into the property. We tried to figure out what it was. We didn’t see any movements until the second similar noise and then a piece of concrete lifted off.
It was then the house started moving. All we could have done was to observe it moving. We tried to move whatever we could safely,” Solomon said.
In 1997 eruption, the house which has been there for the past 30 years, also sustained damage. He said it is frightening living close to the volcano and his family is hoping for the best. He said they are contemplating to evacuate their home if the situation worsens.
Senior geoscientist Xavier Moonan advised citizens not to venture near the Piparo mud volcano since drone surveys indicated it was about to blow.
Moonan and his team toured the volcano yesterday morning, hours after residents reported seeing fissures and cracks around the area.
In an interview, Moonan said: “We just drone surveyed the mud volcano. We should advise people to not venture onto it at least. It looks like it may blow very soon. We are seeing up to two feet of motion on some fractures.”
Princes Town MP Barry Padarath, who viewed the activity at the volcano believes that residents should not take any chances and those living closely should evacuate.
Recalling that the 1997 eruption came like a “thief in the night” he said the new development has caused panic in the community and was worried that none of the relevant authorities had shown up to assess the conditions.
Padarath said geologists and seismologists are needed to quickly outline what is taking place.
In terms of the economic impact on residents, he said his office along with the Couva Tabaquite Talparo Regional Corporation is putting together a contingency plan as it is a “ticking time bomb.”
“This morning I am very unhappy with the level of response from the national agencies concerning the level of seriousness in which they approach this particular issue of the potential eruption of the mud volcano.
“Over the past few years, this is the most significant activity that we’ve seen in the volcano. It has damaged one property, there are fissures and cracks throughout the land space that surround the mud volcano,” Padarath said.
He found it worrying that people were rushing to the volcano, unconcerned about the threat it posed.
CTTRC chairman Henry Awong said the corporation’s disaster management unit (DMU) visited the community this morning and would make a recommendation on whether the area should be restricted.
Awong said that people were venturing to the mouth of the volcano, which was quite dangerous given the activities. He said he was awaiting an assessment from the Seismic Research Centre and the DMU.
The volcano first erupted on February 22, 1997, displacing 31 families and killing livestock and birds.
During the eruption, thick warm liquid mud spewed up to 200ft in the air.
The expanse of volcanic dirt covered an area of 2.5 km.